In a brief press conference at the White House on Monday, August 18, Barack Obama was asked about the ongoing civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri\u2026 a response by the black community to the shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old, 6 ft. 4 in. black man, described in various media reports as a \u201cgentle giant.\u201d\u00a0 Eyewitness reports indicate that Brown, who just ten minutes earlier had committed a strong-arm robbery of a convenience store, was in the process of attacking a uniformed Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson, when he was shot to death.<\/p>\n
In response, Obama said, \u201cI have to be very careful about not pre-judging.\u201d\u00a0 But then, in the next breath, he proceeded to pre-judge, as he has so many times before.\u00a0 Attempting to give the impression of racial neutrality in his administration, he concluded by saying, \u201cWe have to be careful not to put a thumb on the scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
He apparently has a very short memory.\u00a0 On July 16, 2009, Harvard University<\/a> professor Henry Louis Gates<\/a>, Jr., was arrested at his Cambridge, Massachusetts<\/a> home by a local police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, who was responding to a neighbor\u2019s 911 call telling police that unidentified men were breaking into the house next door\u2026 a house that turned out to be Gates\u2019s residence.<\/p>\n The incident occurred as Gates returned home from a trip to China<\/a>, only to find his front door jammed.\u00a0 With the help of his driver he attempted to force it open.\u00a0 A neighbor, attempting to be a \u201cgood Samaritan,\u201d telephoned police. \u00a0When Sgt. Crowley arrived on the scene he went to the front door and asked Gates to step outside.\u00a0 He explained to Gates that he was investigating the report of a break-in, to which Gates responded, \u201cWhy, because I’m a black man in America?\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, after grudgingly providing the officer with a photo ID, Gates became verbally abusive.\u00a0 After two warnings from Sgt. Crowley that he was becoming disorderly\u2026 warnings that went unheeded\u2026 Gates was placed under arrest, taken to the Cambridge police station in handcuffs, photographed, fingerprinted, and charged with disorderly conduct.<\/p>\n During a July 22 White House press conference, columnist Lynn Sweet<\/a>, Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times<\/a><\/i>, posed a question to Obama.\u00a0 She said, \u201cRecently, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested at his home in Cambridge. \u00a0What does that incident say to you? \u00a0And what does it say about race relations in America?\u201d<\/p>\n Obama replied, \u201cNow, I’ve\u2026 I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. \u00a0But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly<\/i> in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. \u00a0And number three, what I think we know, separate and apart from this incident, is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That\u2019s just a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n On the night of February 26, 2012, neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman was driving through his neighborhood in the Twin Lakes housing complex in Sanford, Florida\u2026 a neighborhood that had recently experienced a number of burglaries and forced entries.\u00a0 Seeing an unfamiliar figure, dressed in a \u201choodie,\u201d walking through the neighborhood, he telephoned local police.\u00a0 The police dispatcher advised Zimmerman to remain in his vehicle and not to follow the unknown person.<\/p>\n However, when the dispatcher asked Zimmerman for his exact location, so that police could find him when they arrived, he left his vehicle to find a street name and house number.\u00a0 As he did so, he was approached out of the darkness by 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, of Miami Gardens, Florida, who had been lying in wait.\u00a0 Martin asked Zimmerman if he had a \u201cproblem,\u201d to which Zimmerman replied that he did not.<\/p>\n If, at that point, Martin had turned and proceeded on to his destination, that would\u2019ve been the end of the matter and it\u2019s likely he would still be alive today\u2026 but he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Instead, he said to Zimmerman, \u201cWell, you\u2019ve got one now.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin then proceeded to strike Zimmerman with his fist, knocking him to the ground.\u00a0 Martin then sat astride Zimmerman, beating his head against a concrete sidewalk and threatening to kill him.\u00a0 Zimmerman, fearing that he would be seriously injured, if not killed, drew a handgun from his belt and shot Martin to death. \u00a0The shooting of a young black man, by a man perceived as white, became headline news across the country, sparking a national debate centered on race.<\/p>\n Zimmerman was taken into custody, treated for head injuries, questioned, and released. \u00a0\u00a0The chief of police explained that Zimmerman was released because there was no evidence to refute his claim of having acted in self-defense, and that, under the state\u2019s \u201cStand Your Ground<\/a>\u201d statute, Zimmerman had a right to use lethal force to defend himself.\u00a0 Police had no grounds on which to arrest<\/a> and charge him.<\/p>\n Then, on Friday, March 23, 2012, while responding to reporters\u2019 questions in the White House Rose Garden, Obama said, \u201cI can only imagine what (Martin\u2019s) parents are going through.\u00a0 And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids, and I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local, to figure out how this tragedy happened.\u201d \u00a0He concluded by surmising, \u201cYou know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.\u201d<\/p>\n Unable to pass up another opportunity to foment racial animosity, Obama dispatched his attorney general, Eric Holder, to Florida to \u201cstir the pot\u201d a bit. \u00a0According to reports, Holder used a \u201ccommunity relations\u201d unit of the Department of Justice to \u201cstage-manage\u201d protests and to help arrange a meeting between local officials and the local chapter of the NAACP.<\/p>\n Days later, under pressure from local black leaders, Zimmerman was placed under arrest and indicted by State\u2019s Attorney Angela Corey, charged with second degree murder\u2026 a crime for which a jury later found him not guilty.<\/p>\n Now, in August 2014, Obama once again finds it necessary to interfere in what is clearly a local law enforcement matter.\u00a0 In addition to dispatching Eric Holder to Ferguson, Missouri, Obama has assembled a team of 40 FBI agents to participate in the investigation of events surrounding the death of Michael Brown\u2026 40 FBI agents who could be put to far better use looking into the criminal activities of former Internal Revenue Service official, Lois Lerner, or one of the other Obama administration scandals.\u00a0 Their assignment in Ferguson is to determine whether or not Brown\u2019s civil right were violated while he was in the process of being shot to death.<\/p>\n Taking a page out of the Mark Furman chapter of the O.J. Simpson trial, the agents are said to be knocking on doors, interviewing everyone they can find who ever knew Officer Wilson, in order to dig up information that may point to past racist thoughts or actions on his part.<\/p>\n From what we are told, Officer Wilson has an exemplary six-year record as a police officer.\u00a0 So what will 40 FBI agents uncover in a week or two of beating the bushes for racially-charged dirt?\u00a0 Will they learn that Officer Wilson didn\u2019t think it was nice of Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis to strike his wife, knocking her unconscious?\u00a0 Or will one of the diligent FBI sleuths uncover the fact that Officer Wilson once traded a black car for a white one?<\/p>\n Democratic partisans are clamoring for Obama to travel to Missouri to talk some sense into members of his base who are rioting in the streets, but there are two reasons why he won\u2019t do that.\u00a0 First, he knows that if he were to walk the streets of Ferguson he would stand no better chance of coming back alive than if he were to walk the mean streets of South Chicago, his home turf.\u00a0 And finally, since he doesn\u2019t go anywhere without an entourage of hundreds, the optics of his traveling party outnumbering the protestors would not make good video footage for the evening news.<\/p>\n Instead, he has sent his top political operative, Attorney General Eric Holder, to Missouri.\u00a0 But sending Holder, the most corrupt attorney general in history, to put down violence in the black community is like sending Bonnie and Clyde to interrupt a bank robbery in progress.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n What Obama\u2019s recent pronouncements tell us is that he has become as adept at parsing his words as the old master, Bill (That all depends on what the meaning of the word \u201cis\u201d is) Clinton.\u00a0 Obama doesn\u2019t want to put \u201ca\u201d thumb on the scales of justice.\u00a0 Instead, since the victim in the Ferguson shooting is a young black man, he wants to put both<\/i> thumbs on the scales. \u00a0Obama\u2019s record of the past five and one-half years tells us that he is always willing to tip the scales of justice when a black victim is involved and when his doing so can profit him politically.<\/p>\n It is probably safe to assume that the family of Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi, rotting away in a Mexican prison because he took a wrong turn and unintentionally drove into Mexico with several firearms in the trunk of his car, would appreciate it if Obama would put at least one thumb on the scales of justice in Mexico.<\/p>\n But then, Sergeant Tahmooressi is a white guy, isn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a brief press conference at the White House on Monday, August 18, Barack Obama was asked about the ongoing civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri\u2026 a response by the black community to the shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old, 6 … Continue reading